In Ottawa, Anton Forsberg made 33 saves and the Senators defeated the visiting Buffalo Sabres, 3-1, on Sunday to snap the Sabres’ six-game winning streak.
“At the end of the day, I’ve just got to focus on what I’m supposed to do even if I’m not playing,” Forsberg said. “That’s my job. Everybody goes to work, and I come in every day and try to have a good attitude and work on what I know I need to work on, and work together with the goalie coaches (Zac Bierk and Justin Peters).
“Both goalie coaches have done a great job of coming up with drills, and we’ve been working hard together to be able to stay in game shape. I felt good out there. I didn’t feel like I hadn’t played for a while, which is great.”
Ottawa improved to 17-17-3.
“We knew the way we had to play in order to win, and I just thought we stayed with it all the way,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said.
Zemgus Girgensons was the lone striker for the Sabres, his goal came in the second period, and tied the score 1-1, after Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle scored the first of his two goals in the first period.
“I thought [Anderson] was just steady,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “He’s just a good goalie, and he made it look simple. He read shooters extremely well and kind of had an effortlessness to him. He was fresh. He did his job.”
The Sabres dropped to 18-15-2.
“Just got to be better,” Buffalo forward Tage Thompson said. “It wasn’t a good enough effort tonight by me, and I think we left [Anderson] hanging a lot.
“You’ve got to give them credit. They played a hard game, they were physical, in your face all night, took time and space away from us, and when that happens, you’ve got to simplify, you’ve got to keep it really simple, and we did not do that. We passed pucks right into their pressure and gave them easy turnovers, and that’s where they got a lot of their offense.”
Ottawa reclaimed the lead at 17:54 of the middle frame on a goal from Jacob Lucchini .
“When the puck squirted out, knowing that you have a chance to score your first goal, you get pretty excited,” Lucchini said. “My eyes opened up pretty big. Just so excited. Obviously, it’s something I’ve dreamed about my whole life. It might be my last first goal, I think, so it was unbelievable.”
The game stayed that way until Stutzle hit an empty-net goal with 11 seconds left on the clock for the 3-1 final.
Craig Anderson made 30 saves in the Sabres loss.
“We’re used to scoring goals, and when that doesn’t happen, everyone gets, you know, ‘Oh my goodness, we didn’t score.’ But that’s going to happen,” Anderson said. “You’re going to run into some bad luck or a hot goalie in some way, shape, or form throughout the year. We can’t dwell on it. You just have to turn the page and look forward to the next one.”
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